Norris Sentenced for Archer County Charges
By: Melissa Foy
Updated: March 22, 2013
David Austin Norris, former Holliday High School softball coach, is sentenced Friday in Archer County for engaging in an improper relationship with one of his students.
Bob Estrada, Norris' attorney, says, "David Norris knows and understands that he failed to maintain and establish a proper boundary in the relationship between an educator and a student. He came here today to be punished for that failure."
Dobie Kosub, the prosecutor for this case, says, "We fashioned a plea agreement the demonstrated the breadth of his activity."
Kosub says Norris had previously been reprimanded by the high school for trying to woo other students.
He says he hopes Norris' sentence sends a strong message to other teachers: that they can't use their classrooms as a dating pool.
"You're going to go to prison if you pursue students in this part of the country," Kosub says.
He says he knows social media is big in this day in age, but people need to remember this is a sensitive case involved a child.
"It is hard to read," Kosub says. "It is hard to see, and I wonder if people who are taking this victim to task, what they would feel like if this were their child."
The attorneys agree Norris' sentence was appropriate for the crime.
"The sentence is high enough to actually punish, but low enough to give david a chance to have a life and to come back and be a productive citizen," Estrada says.
"This time next year, he's going to be in the penitentiary. This time in two years, he's going to be in the penitentiary. This time in three years, he's still going to be in the penitentiary. He's going to have a long time to think about what he did," Kosub says.
Norris will get 106 days credit to his sentence for time already served.
He'll have to serve half of his sentence day-for-day before he's eligible for parole.
